Atrum sneezed loudly as he looked around searching for more clues to Shadow Hearts activities, once again he hadn't found anything substantial just a bunch of mooks causing trouble, he guessed that beating on mooks was a great stress reliever even if it didn't really help him in the long run. Still he guessed he was making progress regardless, just in smaller portions than he wanted. Though he was definitely sure that he wasn't ready to go up against his planned goal now, he was also sure that he wasn't about to give up on it just yet. Atrum took a look to his right and saw a rather impressive looking store, it was a warehouse really but still that just meant it could hold more stuff. The Giant decided to take a gander inside he wasn't doing anything in particular at the moment and it might have supplies for his training regiment that he had planned anyways. He perused the aisles silently looking mostly rather than making any effort to buy anything, he stopped at an empty glass display unit looking it over and wondering what was supposed to be displayed there and if it was a device or something like that.

He looked at it and blinked as he noticed the reflection of something dark in it, that gave him a second of pause. Come to think of it, the place had quieted down recently it was almost too quiet for the giants taste, and since he wasn't feeling motivated to but anything maybe he would simply leave. He started to turn when he noticed the dark reflection was speeding towards him, he blinked confused for a fraction of a second leaving him wholly unprepared for a man slamming into it and the glass shattering on impact. Atrum's eye's widened as he stared at the sudden and unexplained carnage and saw what looked like a random civilian embedded in the display unit.

"Holy- Sir, are you okay?" Atrum asked immediately checking to se if he had sustained any major injuries. Atrum looked over to where he had come from to see that several men all looking rather well built had taken to robbing the store. The man in the glass was about to say something when Atrum put a hand over his mouth and a single finger to his own mouth. "Shhh, conserve your energy, I shall handle this." He said putting a pleasant smile on his face before turning to the robbers and raising his hands in surrender and walking towards them.

"Hey you! Down on the ground now!" Insisted one of the men noticing Atrum approaching him. "Woah a big guy aren't ya?"

"Do not be afraid good sir I am completely unarmed." Atrum said still approaching the man choosing not to show his teeth off just yet. He wanted to surprise the man with them.

"I thought I told you to get down on the ground!" The man growled at Atrum who simply grinned in response now that he was close enough.

Atrum acted as soon as the man's eyes widened from the surprise reaching out and grabbing his weapon arm and twisting forcing the man to turn and drop his weapon out of pain. Atrum grinned and wrapped his arm around the man's neck flexing and cutting off his air flow falling backwards to remove his ability to fight back and take him out of sight of his friends. The man simply refused to panic, and Atrum was willing to give that to him, as he instead choose to repeatedly slam his elbow into atrum's ribs until he passed out from the lack of oxygen. At which point Atrum let go of his opponent, not wanting to kill him by mistake. He was glad the first one went down so easy if the others continued to make the same mistakes he could take them all out before they even left the store. This was a good course of action, if he did it right they wouldn't even notice that they were being attacked. He was about to start sneaking around when he felt someone watching him and then suddenly heard the loud voice of one of the robber raising the alarm for his friends.

"We got a man down over here! One of the customers is fighting back-" Atrum was having none of that he turned around and snapped his fingers a small ball of flames bursting to life in front of the man's face and them suddenly expanding over it causing him to screaming in pain. "Ahhh! He's a wizard!-" He managed to get out before Atrum slammed his fist into his face and knocking him off his feet. Before he hit the ground however he glowed brightly before miraculously he flipped over landing on his feet instead, instantly drawing his dagger and slashing Atrum's arm. Atrum blinked and took a step back placing a hand on his arm and blinking chancing a glance at the other robbers looking for one of them that stood out over the others. There was no time to worry about it now this was a full on brawl, the man stabbed at Atrum and in a lapse of judgement Atrum force his hand onto the blade letting it slice though his hand as he grabbed the man's fist tightly with his hand. The Giant took his left hand and socked the man right in the throat while he was shocked with Atrum's accidental display of manliness, causing him to reach for his throat as he suddenly found he couldn't breathe. The man fell to his knees and Atrum brought his knee up to his chin knocking him out in a swift movement, with the man no longer conscious Atrum put his unwounded hand on his throat and coaxed his air passage back open, allowing him to breath again. Atrum ripped the dagger out of his hand and chucked it away from him, that will take a while to heal. He heard a sound and turned around to see two more Thugs approaching him daggers drawn, well he did say he would handle this.

Atrum stood up and cracked his knuckles before throwing a punch at one of them, only to be surprised when the man actually caught his punch. Atrum stared wide eye as for the first time since he could remember he met a human physically stronger than him, instead of being scared like the thug was probably expecting all it did was light a fire in Atrum's heart. These guys could give him a run for his money then, he didn't need to hold back then. The giant laughed as he sudden was engulfed in flames, thrusting forwards with an elbow at his opponent face catching him off guard and causing him to let go oh his fist. The Giant grabbed the man and pushed him to the ground and began punching him while he was down. The man screamed as he was burned but returned every blow Atrum threw with one of his own, the two strong men wailing on each other for all they were worth. The other man was too shocked by the spectacle to immediately join his friend but after a brief moment of hesitation he drew his dagger and slashed Atrum across the back causing the giant to roar angrily he turned suddenly and placed his hand on the mans face fire exploding from his face and throwing the man back leaving him covered in fire. Before he could return to what he was doing however the man under him buck and threw the giant off of him rushing to his feet before Atrum could regroup himself.

The giant snarled at the man cracking his knuckles and flinching at the pain in his right injured hand, two of them were definitely defeated and these two were almost done he could feel it. He just needed to his hands around him, he grunted as the man kneed him in the gut before he could stand up straight, the Giant growled and grabbed the man lifting him off his feet and fell backwards smashing the man's skull into the ground throwing his legs over his head and landing on his feet. The Giant was having fun doing this, these men were strong but they were not experts this was worth the trip.

"You can not be done just yet. Come on you whelps show me what you can do." Atrum turned as the man he had hit with his thunderous flame spell charged at him, Atrum wasn't having any of it he scooted to the side and grabbed the man's head and slammed it into one of the metal aisles throwing the man's sense of balance off, the Giant kept his grip on him and slammed the thugs face into the aisles again with more force this time knocking him unconscious. The giant was getting tired again or was it sore? He couldn't tell anymore, it all felt the same to him not that it would stop him. Only his body literally giving out would keep him from doing what needed to be done. "All right...who is next then?"

The giant looked about for other thugs when two more appeared in front of him looking at their fallen allies and the panting but grinning Atrum. The giant looked about and chuckled as he saw what must've been a surprising sight for them, four of their group of six completely unconscious and one large battle hardened and scarred man standing among their defeated forms. Well they certainly weren't happy about it as one of them gave a nod to the other causing him to step forwards and draw his dagger. Atrum chuckled and cracked his knuckles not sure what this guy thought he could do against the man who had taken out four of their friends unaided. Just as he thought that the combatant glowed brightly and suddenly was in Atrum's face, suddenly the giant gasped as he felt the stinging of a blade entering his side. He reached down to grab the hand holding the blade but snatched air instead finding that a new pain had erupted on his other side, this fighter was fast and cutting into Atrum like butter. The Gaint roared his rage at this new challenger throwing his arms open waiting for the man to get close again, his body was still covered in flames he was going to burn this one's fighting spirit up. Atrum hungered.

"Well are you not impressive? Or maybe this strength and speed of yours comes from the one standing behind you? Either way, you both are going to end up like your friends, unconscious on the ground if you do not give up. I would suggest taking this chance to do so because I will not give you this chance again." Atrum said smiling pleasantly at his attackers. Obviously they laughed at him of course they did why wouldn't they? They believe they had the upper hand in this fight, not that it mattered Atrum wasn't about to let them escape. The one attacking him charged Atrum only to receive Atrum's foot in his face, the giant grinned and brought his foot down into the ground smashing his attacker's skull into the floor. "You thought that speed of yours made you untouchable, all it did was make you arrogant and easy to read. You charge straight at your target and then suddenly jerk to the side and strike at their unprotected flesh. The draw back being you moved to fast to dodge my foot. Enjoy your nap whelp." Atrum chuckled looking up to the last man, in order to taunt him viciously. "So are you next or-" Atrum blinked as he looked up finding that the last thug was nowhere to be seen. he turned towards the exit and saw the man making a break for it at full speed.

"You have got to be kidding me. COME BACK YOU COWARD HOW DARE YOU RUN FROM ME!?" Atrum roared pushing off the ground and using his extended stride to chase after the fleeing robber, he wasn't about to let this guy run away after all he went through. The Giant, still on fire, rushed out of the warehouse after the robber roaring angrily as he did so, the robber would not escape him.

The robber kept running from Atrum hauling a bag of stolen goods behind him as he rushed towards the train station attempting to get away with the crime, leaving his friends to take the fall while he made out with the haul. The fact that he had committed the crime was bad enough but now that he was leaving his allies behind and trying to save himself, Atrum really wanted to pummel this one. The giant thundered towards his target, lowering himself to scoop up a pallet lifting it up and hefting it upon his back already planning on beating his target with it until he stopped running. It was clear however that he wasn't going to catch up by simply chasing him so he decided to toss the pallet at the man's legs knocking him off his feet. The Giant grinned viciously as he caught up and drew his fist back in order to slug the man, only for him to glow suddenly and flip back to his feet and kick at Atrum. The Giant snagged the robbers leg and brought his elbow down on it causing the man to scream in pain as a crack sounded and Atrum felt a satisfying dent in the man's leg.

[color=gold"You are not running anywhere with your leg like that. looks like your only choice is to fight me."[/color] Atrum said as the man quickly drew his dagger and embeded it into Atrum's right arm before he could react. The Giant roared in pain opening his jaws and biting down on the man's blade arm his fanged maw easily shredding the man's flesh and connecting with the bone. Blood filled Atrum's mouth the man's blood tasted horrible but for some reason Atrum only bit down harder. The man started punching Atrum's head his fist connecting with the stonewheat hat upon his head there was a cracking sound and Atrum felt a sudden surge of pure rage hit him. Atrum's jaw closed and his fangs sunk into the man's bone severing the muscles in his arm making it useless. The giant let go of the man's arm and let the blood that had pooled in his mouth leak from his mouth. The man gave Atrum a terrified look and his free arm reach over to the blad e in Atrum's Right arm and ripped it out Causing Atrum to flinch at the sudden pain.

"Monster!" The man shouted slashing at Atrum's neck intent on severing his head, killing atrum and removing him as a threat all together. "Get away from me!" He shouted as Atrum just barely avoided having his throat slit only to have the dagger come down on his left shoulder. The giant made a animalistic sound like a wounded predator and kneed the man in the gut knocking him back. He grabbed the pallet and smashed it against the man knocking him off his feet. The Giant was pissed, angry as all hells he was going to make sure this man didn't run. He wasn't going to run! The giant used his left arm to rip the dagger out of his shoulder groaning in pain and slammed the dagger through the man's uninjured leg.

"There is no running now, not for you." Atrum grinned and cracked his neck. "You and your thugs really did a number on me. It is not often that I see so much of my own blood. By the way, your's taste like shit." He said kneeing the man in the face knocking him back flat on the ground. "Just lie there a bit and this will be much easier for you, though I certainly hope you resist I want to go six for six." He chuckled as the man struggled to his feet determined to not get captured. "You are determined, I respect that." Atrum complimented the man.

"Go to hell monster." The man spat back snarling as he took the blade out of his leg and held it in front of him.

"Maybe I am a monster, but know that you are a coward and a whelp. You have no chance of beating a monster like me in the first place." Atrum laughed as the man lunged forwards Atrum moving his still usable arm to deflect the blade and pin the man's arm to his side. "Goodnight sweet prince." Atrum said smashing his forehead into the man's skull, once, twice, three time as the man finally passed out. This was a painful experience but he got it done. The giant grabbed the man and dragged him back to the shop he was bleeding all over the place and needed medical attention. The man who had been smashed into the glass limped his way over to Atrum and stared at the giant in shock.

"Holy- are you okay?" He asked looking the Giant over marveling at his injuries.

"You should see the other guy, he was pretty determined to stay out of jail." Atrum responded dragging the man before him. "Also could you do us both a favor and call the authorities and get someone to get me to a hospital? I am not sure how much longer I can stay conscious." Atrum said noticing his eyes felt pretty heavy. The man rushed to fulfill Atrum's request informing the authorities of the break in and getting the giant to a hospital before he and his opponent bled out.

Atrum awoke a few hours later feeling like crap but since his wounds had close he felt well enough to leave. He got up and walked out of the of room he was stuck in, running into the man he saw before.

"You're awake already? Nevermind I don't think I could stop you regardless of how injured you were. This is for you.....Safe travels." The man said leaving the building before Atrum had a chance to respond. The Giant blinked and took the bag of jewels and sighed, he guessed at the very least he got something for getting cut up like this. He'd be back to one hundred percent after he ate.[Exit thread]Word counter: 3090